The East-West Center (EWC) is at the forefront of educating people of the Asia Pacific region to meet the evolving demands of global change. Since its founding in 1960, the Center has promoted the development of a stable, prosperous, and peaceful Asia Pacific community through programs of cooperative study, training, and research.

The East-West Center’s AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools supports the Center’s mission by providing global learning and exchange opportunities for educators and students in the United States and in the Asia Pacific region.

The Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership is a membership organization consisting of some twenty-five universities, ministries of education and quality assurance entities joined together to identify, explore and conduct research on key issues of higher education change within the Asia Pacific Region.

A joint program of the East-West Center and the University of Hawai’i, ASDP offers a variety of content-focused faculty and institutional development programs and activities centered around summer residential institutes, field seminars in Asia, workshops on the U.S. mainland, and an annual academic conference.

The East-West Center is a leader in educating people of the Asia Pacific region, including the United States, to meet the evolving demands and interdependency of global change. The Center offers a range of educational opportunities, bringing together more than 300 students each year from across the region.

The East-West Center Research Program engages the research and policy communities in the US and the Asia Pacific on issues of common concern. The goal is to provide more complete knowledge and deeper understanding of the environments, societies, economies, and governments of the Asia Pacific region.

The East-West Center is engaged in collaborative research projects in three broad areas: environment, population, and health; innovation, economic integration, and growth; and governance, security, and justice.

East-West Seminars offers short-term dialogue, field study, travel and exchange opportunities for working professionals in politics, government, civil society, business and the media who are in positions to affect policy, shape public opinion and influence change in their countries and communities. Programs provide opportunities for leading professionals from the United States and Asia Pacific to exchange views, build networks, develop leadership skills, and deepen knowledge of regional issues.

Journalism fellowships and exchanges for working American and Asia Pacific journalists promote understanding of the complexities of the Asia Pacific region through study tours. Intensive dialogue with colleagues, government officials, business executives and community leaders provides participants with a means to broaden their network of contacts.

The Asia Pacific Center for Journalists at the East-West Center in Honolulu leads the region in the vast array of programs and resources it offers journalists on Asia Pacific issues, including 10 fellowship travel programs for American, Asian and Pacific island journalists; a news service providing diverse commentary and analysis on breaking and ongoing Asia Pacific stories; comprehensive, updated online news coverage of the Pacific islands; and quick access to the East-West Center's specialists and 50,000 alumni throughout the region.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers around the world, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific region, Monday through Friday.

This June, the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a completes its three-year Mālama Honua Worldwide voyage to promote global sustainability. With its return, 32 years after it set sail from Hawai‘i on its first voyage, thoughts turn to the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and others who helped ignite the revival of traditional, non-instrument voyaging in the Pacific. After the founding of the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawai‘i in the early 1970s, the East-West Center provided it support as part of the Center’s mandate from the US Congress to facilitate “cultural and technical interchange between East and West.” The Center, through its deep networks in the then-UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, was able to identify the traditional navigator necessary for the project, and host him in Honolulu as a “special fellow.”

Applications are being accepted now through May 1, 2017 for the East-West Center-Sasakawa USA Congressional Staff Program on Asia. CSPA is a bipartisan educational certificate program, which aims to equip Congressional staffers with greater knowledge of US-Asia policy in order to better understand America’s role in and engagement with this dynamic region and the policy implications that will directly engage Congress.

The East-West Center Association (EWCA) is an international network of professionals who have a past affiliation with the East-West Center. There are no membership fees to participate in the EWCA. The Association is led by an international Executive Board representing the various professions, regions, and decades of its members. Collectively, they are contributing to global understanding, building an Asia Pacific community, and making a world of difference.

The East-West Center Association (EWCA) is an international network of professionals who have a past affiliation with the East-West Center. There are no membership fees to participate in the EWCA. The Association is led by an international Executive Board representing the various professions, regions, and decades of its members. Collectively, they are contributing to global understanding, building an Asia Pacific community, and making a world of difference.

With more than 62,000 alumni and associates around the world, the East-West Center has one of the largest networks of professionals working to advance international cooperation and understanding between the East and West. As part of that network, you can receive advice and support from associates throughout the region. As an alumni/associate you may join any one of the nearly 50 EWC alumni chapters in Asia, the Pacific and the U.S. While traveling, you can also contact local chapters for assistance in making contacts with colleagues and friends.

The East-West Center seeks to build a strong, peaceful and vibrant Asia-Pacific community as an anchor of a global community which features China and the US as strong partners. Special Projects focuses on China-US philanthropy exchange and other leadership and education projects primarily associated with China. Major projects include the East-West Philanthropists Summit and the China-US Strategic Philanthropy Partnership (CUSP).

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Disaster Management and Resiliency in the Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowship

Disaster Management and Resiliency in the Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowship

The Disaster Management and Resiliency in the Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowships program is co-sponsored by the Center for Global Partnership, All-China Journalists Association and the Japan Foreign Press Center/Tokyo. This 14-day professional dialogue, study and travel program is designed for working print, broadcast and online journalists from the United States, Japan, China and those Asian and Oceanic countries bordering the tectonic Pacific Plate. It will introduce participating journalists to a broad range of disaster management activities in the United States, Japan and China as well as post-disaster challenges to political, economic and energy resiliency. Emphasis will be placed on:

disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts at the local, federal and international levels;

government, military, business and civil-society initiatives successful in reducing risk and in providing assistance post-disaster;

resilience as the capacity to recover from disasters and the maintenance of political structures, economic markets, energy policies and the functionality of society in the wake of a catastrophe;

the impact of recent catastrophic natural disasters on economic markets and supply chains throughout the Asia Pacific region;

responses to the Fukushima nuclear crisis and the future of energy policy and security in the Asia Pacific region.

Kindly note that the East-West Center will not be offering the Disaster Management and Resiliency Journalism Fellowships in 2014.

2013 DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND RESILIENCY JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIPS

The 2013 Disaster Management and Resiliency Journalism Fellowship program took place Sunday, September 29 – Sunday, October 13, 2013 and included twelve journalists from Australia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the United States. The journalists visited New York City, New York; Tokyo, Japan; Sendai, Japan; and Chengdu, China. In New York City, the journalists examined lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy, which struck the eastern seaboard on October 29, 2012 and registered as a Category 2 storm at its peak intensity. In Japan, the journalists visited the capital city for an assessment of how the Japanese government and disaster response agencies handled the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami and nuclear crisis as well as what lessons were learned. In Sendai, the EWC, in partnership with Peace Winds Japan, exposed the journalists to the personal side of natural disasters through discussions with aid workers, shopkeepers, local fishermen and other community members. Finally, the journalists visited Chengdu to examine China’s recovery efforts following the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. In all three countries, the role and responsibility of the media to accurately report on disasters was explored.

The program covers all air transportation, lodging, and program-related ground transportation and meals for participating journalists from the funded countries listed above. Other qualified, interested journalists from countries outside the tectonic Pacific Plate area are expected to cover Fellowships costs at a discounted rate of USD $6,575/per participant to be paid prior to the beginning of the program.

Highlights of the 2013 DisMan Fellowship in New York included a session with Mr. Seth Pinsky of the NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, founded in the wake of Hurricane Sandy by then Mayor Bloomberg. Mr. Pinsky provided an overview of lessons learned regarding staffing, communications and deployment of resources as well as New York City’s efforts to rebuild impacted communities and increase the resilience of infrastructure and buildings citywide. A meeting with Dr. Jason P. Tuell, director of the National Weather Service Eastern Region, provided the journalists with an opportunity to examine the National Weather Service’s role in disaster awareness as well as the challenges of forecasting storm intensity and communicating the likelihood of destructive impact to the general public. The group also benefited from a meeting with Mr. Thaddeus Pawlowski of New York’s Department of City Planning New York and the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery, who described New York’s flood vulnerabilities, flood resistant construction and recommendations for building resilient coastal communities.

In Tokyo, the journalists met with various government officials, academics, business executives and community aid workers for an assessment of how the Japanese government and disaster-response agencies handled the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. A highlight of the Tokyo program was a meeting with Toshihiko Hashida, director-general of the Japan’s Meteorological Agency’s (JMA) Seismological and Volcanological Department, who explained JMA’s role as the sole national authority responsible for issuing weather warning and advisories as well as its move toward qualitative rather than quantitative warnings as a result of the 3/11 disaster. The journalists also benefited from a tour of JMA’s command center. In addition, the journalists en

joyed speaking with colleagues at NHK Japan Broadcasting regarding the media’s role in communicating information to the public in a timely and effective manner during natural disasters. Attendance at a ‘Design + Art’ exhibition event organized by the non-profit organization, Plus Arts, also provided the journalists with a unique opportunity to explore Japan’s efforts to foster disaster awareness among its youth. Finally,the journalists examined nuclear power and energy policy in Japan from a variety of perspectives including a visit with the Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center, an anti-nuclear public interest organization dedicated to a safe, nuclear-free world.

In China, the journalists visited Chengdu to examine China’s recovery efforts following the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. While several of the journalists found the Chinese speakers to be repetitive and less than forthcoming, several noted that the Chengdu program was helpful in understanding the “sheer ambition, speed and scale of China’s development plans.”In addition, the journalists appreciated the chance to meet with Mr. Wang Tun, director of the Chengdu Institute of Care-Life (ICL), which has built the largest earthquake monitoring and early warning system in the world. Mr. Tun provided a brief overview of ICL’s work, the new early earthquake warning system and how it performed during the 2013 Lushan Earthquake as well as a brief tour of the ICL facility.

In addition to formal sessions, the 2013 DisMan Fellowship included field study visits to previous disaster sites in each of the three countries visited, including: the Rockaways and Breezy Point in New York; Sendai and Minamisanriku in Japan; and Yingxui and Shuimo townships in China. During each of these field study visits, the journalists were exposed to the personal side of natural disasters through discussions with students, aid workers, local journalists, small business owners, fishermen, and other affected residents. In particular, the journalists spent a full day touring the devastated town of Minamisanriku, meeting with Mayor Jin Sato, who famously clung to the radio antennae of a local government building during the tsunami and local hotel owner, Ms. Noriko Abe, who voluntarily housed refugees in the days following the tsunami. The journalists also deeply appreciated the East-West Center’s partnership with Peace Winds Japan in arranging a session with the Shizugawa Fisheries Association and a boat tour to a local fisherman’s mussel pots a mile offshore of Minamisanriku.